Melanie McGrice

Melanie McGrice

If you didn’t put too much thought into your food choices before you fell pregnant, you might be feeling a little lost when it comes to your pregnancy diet. If you were a healthy weight before you fell pregnant, you should be aiming to gain between 11.5kg to 16kg by the end of your third trimester. In your first three months, you should continue to eat a normal balanced diet and gain around 2kg. For the remaining months, you should be consuming an additional 400kJ a day to meet your energy requirements – you might be surprised how little food this is! So here are a few of my favourite snack ideas to help you get those extra kilojoules during the home stretch of your pregnancy.

 

Sweet

  • Half a medium-sized banana and a small handful of cashews (around 7 or 8 nuts)
  • 1/2 cup reduced-fat Greek yoghurt with a few blueberries and a little honey
  • 1/4 cup of oats (cooked in water) with a splash of reduced-fat milk and a few chopped strawberries
  • One cup of air-popped popcorn with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, a small handful of almonds (5 or 6 nuts) and dried cranberries or apples (unsweetened)
  • Half a medium-sized apple and a few cubes of hard cheddar cheese (no more than three dice-sized blocks)

 

Savoury

  • One piece of wholegrain toast topped with an egg and some cooked spinach. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice
  • One medium-sized carrot cut into sticks with 3 tablespoons of hummus dip.
  • 1/4 cup brown rice with one-third of a can of tuna (around 30g) and a few cherry tomatoes. Season with pepper and any sort of herbs (basil and coriander are great for this!).
  • Cubed pumpkin (1/2 cup), zucchini (1/2 cup) and drained chickpeas (1/4 cup), lightly fried. Stir through 1/2 tablespoon of pesto.
  • Two whole grain brown rice cakes spread with one tablespoon of mashed avocado on each. Add some fresh rocket, salt, pepper and lime juice.

 

For some extra healthy snack ideas and easy meal planning tips, register for my FREE 7 Day Pregnancy Meal Planner here. For some more hands on assistance, join my 8 Simple Steps to a Healthy Pregnancy Program, where I can walk you through every step of the way, and help your baby get the healthiest possible start to life!

 

You may also like to read:

Safety First – which foods should you stay away from during pregnancy?

What you need to know about health insurance and pregnancy

The pregnancy dilemma – how to slow down and still live a busy life